Courtesy of GoCobbers.com, Release: January 20

St. Kate's Dual Meet Results - Now Online!

ST. PAUL, Minn.-- Life was good for Concordia head coach Julie Lucier, senior diver Annie Cullen and the rest of the Cobbers on Friday. Cullen broke the St. Kate's nine-year-old pool record in the one-meter diving event and Lucier watched as the rest of the Cobbers scored one of the closest dual meet wins in program history.

Concordia used the strength of four individual event wins and a meet-opening victory in the 200-yard medley relay to edge St. Kate's 115-114. It is the second dual meet win for the Cobbers this season. The two dual meet wins have been by a combined total of three points. The loss is the Wildcats second of the season, having been beaten by St. Thomas 114-96 last weekend.

Cullen is right on schedule to defend her MIAC Diver of the Year title. Last week, in her first meet back since the Christmas holiday, she captured both diving events at the St. Ben's dual meet. Against the Wildcats, she was pushed by St. Kate's junior diver Kim Manke, who finished 31 points behind Cullen but threatened throughout the competition. Cullen's total of 278.08 beats the old pool record set by Katie Macy of St. Ben's by 31 points as well. Macy set the record in 1997. Manke's final total of 246.10 was only .20 behind the record as well.

The Cobbers started the meet by winning the 200-yard medley relay. The team of Shaina Fossum, Shannon Brown, Dani Ree and team newcomer Allison Bolgrean swam a 2:01.50 to win the event by over 15 seconds. The time is also faster than any time posted by the Cobbers last year, beating the time put up at the MIAC meet by over two seconds.

Brown and Bolgrean then combined for a 1-2 finish in the 50-yard freestyle. Brown captured the event with a time of 26.62 and Bolgrean was close behind with a 27.01.

Fossum won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 2:24.69. That time is Fossum's fastest of the season and would have placed her 18th in last year's conference meet - faster than any Cobber at the meet.

Junior Katie Lee caught the spirit and teamed with Bolgrean to produce another 1-2 finish in the 100-yard freestyle. Lee's winning time of 58.60 was slightly faster than Bolgrean's mark of 59.24. Lee's time is also right on her seed time from last year with one month to go before this year's championship meet.

Brown captured her second event of the day as she swam a 1:13.17 in the 100-yard breaststroke and won by a full three seconds. Her time is over one second faster than her preliminary qualifying time at last year's MIAC meet.

Concordia will turn around and compete in the St. Kate's Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 21 starting at 9:00am.